Theo Stiller is a Financial Advisor at WestPac Wealth Partners. He joins us in this edition of “What They’re Watching” to discuss physician cashflow management.

“So, working with a lot of physicians, much of what’s important to them becomes important to us as well. I think reimbursements, how they’re getting compensated, as well as the cost of living in Hawaii are all factors to that. Because as their ability to earn income decreases, so does their ability to save for the future, pay off student loans, pay for their retirement at some point in the future.

Aside from the fact that they don’t know how they’re going to be getting compensated or how their cashflow is going to look like in the future, I think one of the biggest challenges is that they don’t really have a good idea of where they stand financially. So, we see this not just in medicine, but across other areas as well, is that people aren’t as financially organized. Meaning not that they don’t know where their stuff is, but it’s just that they’re working with different professionals and there’s no communication between those professionals. Helping them understand and getting a clear picture of where they are today and once people have that clear picture then they can make smart decisions moving forward — smart financial decisions. And ultimately what that will do is that will increase their cashflow because they’re paying less in taxes, being debt-efficient and ultimately that’s going to keep more money in their pocket. So even if their reimbursements do go down, we always try to improve cashflow for them.”